


Need to Make Distance a While

by CountlessUntruths (KaliCephirot)



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga, Magic Knight Rayearth
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Character Death, Crossover, Death Fic, M/M, Murder-Suicide, Sickfic, War Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-18
Updated: 2015-03-18
Packaged: 2018-03-18 10:57:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3567128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaliCephirot/pseuds/CountlessUntruths
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>These days, he even has troubles sleeping. If he's not having nightmares, he just doesn't want to wake up. Eagle burns away more letters than the ones he sends back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Need to Make Distance a While

**Need to Make Distance a While.**

_My dearest sister: I hope that this letter finds you in good health and in a better mood that your last one suggested (really, Presea: if letters could shout, I do believe that I'd be deaf by now and Colonel Zann would have reminded me again about proper military behavior). Geo himself resents that you called him and I quote 'that idiot that follows you', but he appreciates the concern. The last few weeks, East City has been blessed with a magnificent weather and the most wonderful blue sky you could have ever thought about, second only to that of our town, the weather warm and kind... that, of course, makes practice something long and dreadful. Poor Geo comes back completely exhausted, with practice everyday. Few times have I been as glad as I am at the moment that my health – and brains, of course – meant that I'm only cut for Intelligence. No, Presea, I am not sick. My health – other than having a low on candies and desserts that I am informed might even be good for it which is, of course, the most terrible of lies I had ever heard – is more than excellent and there is absolutely no reason why we should have to worry about it, or so says my doctor. Last week, on my free day, I was invited by Mr. Tucker – the man I told you in my last letter that had helped me with my gun and who had just moved here with his wife – to have lunch with him and his wife. Please, tell Hikaru that I thought of her and missed her terribly: the Tucker have an extremely friendly dog named 'Alexander' who very lovingly drooled all over my clothes. I'm sure she will find it extremely charming and she'll wonder more about the dog than about me. Mr. Tucker is going to be presenting the next State Alchemist exams. His wife promised me that, once he was also part of the military, they'd ask me for lunch again. I must admit that the idea made my stomach very happy – I still suffer through the cafeteria food. What I wouldn't give for some of your apple pie! Now, dearest sister, I beg of you to please put the hammer down and step away from the anvil. Perhaps you could read the next part of my letter at the spring – tell me, are the flowers blooming already? I must admit that I miss the forest terribly. East City might be beautiful in its own way, but I'm afraid that nothing will ever take the place of our village in my heart. ... yes, dearest sister, I will stop stalling. But please, please, please don't shout. I'm afraid, Presea, that my next letters might take longer to reach you; my unit has received its orders and by the time this letter has reached you, we'll be in Ishbal. Please, Presea, I beg you: do not worry too much about me. As an Intelligence Major, my role in the fight will fall mostly over maps and strategy. If you have to worry, do so for Geo, even though he assures me that worrying for him is also not necessary, he will be fighting much more than I ever will. Please, sister, do not curse and instead wish us a happy return. Both Geo and me will be going for overdue vacations once this war is over. Then you can yell at me all you want and I will be the happiest I've ever been to hear you screaming. Lovingly yours, Eagle._ 


“Expecting letters from home, Vision?” Eagle smiled and shook his head, allowing Hughes to give his envelope. “Perhaps from a cute girl?”

He laughs. “While my sister is very cute, I'm afraid that I'll be expecting something highly corrosive and dangerous once she writes me back.”

“Not very pleased about you coming here?” Hughes asks, hands in his pockets, voice understanding.

Geo's arm is heavy and muscular around his shoulders, and Eagle would laugh again where Geo not playfully squeezing a bit too tight.

“Not very pleased Eagle _joined_ the military. Or me, for that matter. She's quite loud about that, in fact.”

Eagle has to apologize when a soldier even younger than him informs him that colonel Gran wants to see him and he hurries towards the tent, quick to announce himself.

“Another prodigy joins us,” colonel Gran says, looking towards the tall man with the alchemy arrays over the sword he wears, “Lieutenant Vision, allow me to introduce you to Major Lantis Cail, the Thunder Alchemist. Major Cail, Intelligence Lietenant Colonel, Eagle Vision. Cail will be serving under your command until further notice, Vision.”

Major Lantis Cail stands tall and somber, dark blue eyes steady. He was as tall as Geo but not as muscular as he, hair dark and short, expression tight carefully blank.

Eagle smiles and reaches a hand. Lantis' grasp is strong but somehow gentle and Eagle can't stop an instant liking for the man. 

“It's a pleasure to meet you, Major.”

**

Eagle leans his head against Geo's shoulder and then licks at his sweat, hums and sucks in a deep breath when Geo pushes inside him, trying to keep as quiet as he can. 

His hands slide over the muscles of Geo's back and he gasps again as Geo starts thrusting inside him. Eagle let's go of one arm to slide his hand between them, curl his hand around his own cock, stroke himself fast and hard. 

Like this, he can pretend that he can't still smell the smoke, or hear the explosions always too close, or even see the faces of the men when they come back.

They don't fit side by side, so Eagle stands up and gets some rags to clean themselves. He feels Geo's eyes on him and he smiles, even knowing that Geo can't see it.

“What?”

“You're interested in that stone-faced Alchemist, aren't you?”

Eagle snorts, softly. “Being curious about someone is hardly being 'interested', Geo.”

He knows Geo is smiling when his hand touches his hip and he hears Geo shift over the cot, even before a jacket – Geo's, by the scent – is draped over his shoulders, the familiarity of best friends between them even as Geo stands up and starts feeling his way to pick up the rest of his clothes.

“Just so you know, Eagle? You're a terrible liar.”

**

Cail was strange and aloof. He stood by the sides all the time, even when Eagle offered him some of the few candies he still had, or when Geo and the other soldier offered him something to drink.

Everyday he did as he was told, eyes of midnight blue and he used his electricity to kill the people of Ishbal. 

Eagle had seen Louis Armstrong after a mission, or the way way Roy Mustang sat down, as if his shoulders weighted a ton more each day, or the way Zolf Kimbley seemed to smile each time he passed over him by the Intelligence quarters. 

But Lantis Cail seemed immune to all the nightmares of the war, his expression serious, almost indifferent.

It wasn't until he stood by the infirmary tent, when he saw Lantis kneeling by one of the cots, holding tightly unto an agonizing soldier's hand (barely more than a child) and not letting go until he died, not until Lantis' eyes crossed with his for a moment as he stepped out of the tent that he knew that the war affected Lantis too.

**

_Dear sister: I'm fine, I'm fine. Please, _please_ don't cry. If you can avoid it, also, please don't scream. Thanks to Geo I'm completely safe, and he will tell you that himself. He is. Oh, Presea. When he gets home, _please_ tell him not to be an idiot; that if he makes me I'll write to the Torque family so they don't build him an automail until he has properly rested. He needs to rest and he needs to be away from this war. This isn't a place for such a kind man, and I _can and will_ take care of myself, I promise. By the time he can use an automail, I'm sure the war will be over. I'll send you a longer letter soon, sister. Please, take care of yourself and give Hikaru my love. Take care of Geo once he gets there, and take care of him, please, the same care he's always had with this younger brother of yours. Exhausted, but still and always lovingly yours, Eagle._ 


**

There was a small girl, probably even younger than Hikaru the last time he had seen her, the hole of a bullet bleeding between her open eyes.

Cail waits by his side as he pukes, hands inside his pockets, a cigarette between his lips. He doesn't say a thing as Eagle empties his stomach of bitter coffee and bile, but then Eagle is surprised when Lantis his hands hold unto him when he stumbles. Eagle doesn't have enough strength to push him away and he doesn't close his eyes as Lantis helps him back to camp, inside his tent.

**

“My father was in the military,” Eagle says, low and quiet, unused to the smell of Lantis' cigarettes but not minding it. They're sitting side by side and Lantis takes a deep drag of his smoke before letting it fall, stepping on it. Eagle doesn't move his eyes away, feeling tired, tired, tired.

These days, he even has troubles sleeping. If he's not having nightmares, he just doesn't want to wake up. He sees the same lines of lack of sleep in most of the other soldiers, in the tight, forced smiles, in how dark and swelled their eyes are, the younger ones rimmed red more often than not.

The vacant eyes of the people of Ishbal haunted his dreams.

“But we always lived in Cephiro, a small village to the east. There's one Alchemist there, but even Clef barely goes to East City unless he absolutely has to. I idealized the military, I guess. After father died, I just wanted to follow on his steps. Presea almost killed me when I told her of my plans.”

Eagle doesn't know how to keep on going. Not when his chest hurts almost viciously, thinking of home. He's doing this for Cephiro, he thinks. To protect it. Because these are his orders and this is what he has to do, but he's not sure how he's ever going to be able to face sweet, innocent Hikaru again.

Lantis waits in silence for too long, digs into his pockets, starts another cigarette. His hands are steady as he lights up the smoke, as he takes a drag and then blows it away. Eagle thinks he should go away and he doesn't. There's planning to make. Even if he had been technically dismissed for his superiors to discuss some orders that had come directly from the Führer, there's always something to do.

Then, the Thunder Alchemist starts speaking, voice as soft and bitter as the smoke from his cigarettes. He talks about his parents dying when he and his brother had been young, how his older brother Zagato had taken care of him for years, how Zagato had waited until he had been old enough to take the exams to become a State Alchemist too despite all his talent he had and despite the fact that he could've been there and just leave him behind. 

Lantis talks about becoming an Alchemist with his brother, both of them convinced that it would make a difference they'd be proud of, how Zagato had ranked up fast one he was into the Military, his theoretical research in chimera --

And he talks about the woman his brother fell in love with, Emeraude, the granddaughter of the previous Führer, a sickly, tragically beautiful young woman that seemed to have come out from some sort of storybook, a princess waiting for a magical kiss to wake her up. They had fallen in love even as Zagato continued his research, with love now to give him strength. He'd find a way to save Emeraude, a way to give her back her health.

But Zagato, Lantis says with a cruel, bitter smile, was never a prince.

He talks about Zagato and Emeraude's plans to be wed and plans about their future, and Lantis carries on through Emeraude's declining health, about Zagato's research being a failure, about Emeraude dying. 

Lastly, Lantis talks about his brother trying to bring Emeraude back to life despite everything he knew and everything he believed in, about how he hadn't realized what his brother was trying to do until it was too late and he had arrived to his brother's lab only to find out a single broken body that was neither woman nor man, Emeraude's body and Zagato's body merged in a grotesque, genderless, half finished form, it still alive but Emeraude's sickness spreading alarmingly fast, and it gave agonizing, shallow breaths that burbled with blood on its lips.

Lastly, Lantis talks about how he had killed that creature and how he had been the one to burn the lab, destroying with the corpse whatever it remained of his brother's last research.

“That's off records,” Lantis says as he finishes his third cigarette, a small pile of burnt out cigarettes between his feet. Eagle thinks that Lantis might have been trying to lighten the mood.

Eagle's throat aches and he wonders for a moment how easier it is to feel sympathy for others rather than for yourself, even as he leans forward and finds Lantis' mouth with his own, thinks about the possible mistake this might have been for another second before Lantis' mouth yields to his own.

**

His letters become tangled bits of nothing, a collage of all the destruction and smoke and death surrounding them.

_There was a beautiful sunset today, sister, gold and red and violet and it seemed to last forever ~~and when Lantis came back, a few moments after the sunset, his uniform was dirty with blood and ashes and~~ Tell Hikaru, Presea, that I was absolutely right and the sky can be golden and that Ishbal's sky is the most perfect golden sky that has ever existed, ~~I almost died today, sister. Had I been four steps back, had I not knelt to pick up something that came from the sand, that grenade would've killed me too and for a moment... oh, Presea, for a moment...~~_ 


Hikaru always adds a few lines with Presea's letters, her words cheerful and sweet and Eagle hurts reading them, he feels so guilty about reading something so sweet in such a dark place. He puts the letters inside his bag and keeps one inside his uniform, smiles at Lantis and calls them his good luck charm.

He burns away more letters than the ones he sends back. His letters keep on becoming shorter and shorter. Practically telegrams. When she asks him about that, Eagle tells Presea it's easier for short letters to reach her.

**

Lantis keeps praying by the side of the Ishbalans, eyes closed, his hands crossed over the hilt of his sword. Eagle notices him a few times as he bends over maps and tables and formations, doing his best to break his mind from 'Unit G' as the one that has the new kids, or 'Unit S' the one where the pretty girl that had shared with him some cookies got blown. 

He never asks what Lantis prays for. Eagle finds himself almost terrified that Lantis will say that he's not praying for those who died, but for them, those who remain.

He wonders what Lantis sees as he kills. The electricity is fast and merciful, Eagle thinks, for all that the body still smokes, for all that the eyes remain open, for all that the wound where the sword thrust into the body remains there. He doesn't cry as Major Armstrong does, doesn't laugh as Kimbley, doesn't act as if a part of himself had been killed too, like Mustang does. 

When he kisses him, Lantis tastes of ashes from his cigarettes and there's an electricity that almost hurts Eagle, but he still clings to his shoulders, to his waist, to his steady, betrayed eyes. He doesn't know what Lantis needs but he gives it to him with everything he might have. 

**

Eagle starts coughing blood eight months after he met Lantis, five months after Geo lost his right leg, four months after he killed a young girl by mistake. 

Eagle had never understood irony so well before.

**

_I'm afraid, sister dearest, lovely Hikaru, that I won't ever again will like going to the beach. I might enjoy the sound of the waves, perhaps, but I'm afraid that if I don't see sand ever again, it won't be enough. ~~The doll I rescued blames me. Lantis says that I think too much, that I sleep too little. My lungs are hurting and I think Lantis has noticed. I'm afraid of what any doctor might say. How terrible it is that sometimes I find myself wishing for my health to decline or for me to get hurt so I can go back home?~~ How is Hikaru? Have the flowers bloomed? I can't remember what season is it, if the flowers are supposed to have bloomed or is it winter and they've lost everything now. It's hard to remember how long I've been here despite knowing it well. How is everyone there? Has Geo grown used to his automail? Tell him not to be an idiot and to stop it, just make him stop talking about rejoining the military. Tell him to find someone to love, to become a teacher, to create rather than destroy. Sister, tell me about the weather back at home, please, because here it's blazing hot and cold nights, here is heat and fire and destruction and sometimes it seems as if it's everything I've ever known. Your letters remind me that there's something else, so Lantis pulls me away from the limbo it might be, and then your letters bring me some undeserved hope. Please, please, tell me._ 


The last letter he never sends has drops of his blood, brown in the paper, dried fast.

Lantis folds the letter and puts it inside his jacket as he takes care to pick up Eagle's things.

**

Cephiro is a small village down the south with less than two hundred people living there. It doesn't have a train, so Lantis walks the first few miles until he's offered a lift by a man on his cart. The weather is still a little cold, the spring barely starting. The trees are starting to bloom, though, and Lantis sees the kids playing by the side over a stream, women washing clothes. 

When he tries to picture Eagle growing up here, bright eyed and sweet and eager, of how it would've been to come back here with Eagle for him to show him all the secret places he had told him about in the short, brief lived good days they had, but Lantis can only think of Eagle's last hopeful, tired smile and the shadows under his eyes. 

He finds Eagle's house easily enough; the one smith in town being his older sister's. Before he can knock over the door, carrying the Amestris' flag and the small box with Eagle's tags - body lost to action - the official letter from the army Eagle's decorations and a few of his personal belongings, he hears laughter coming from the side of the house so he goes there. 

He can see a cute teenager, probably around sixteen years old, playing with a dog, and he can see Eagle's sister – the same smile, the same eyes – sitting nearby, her calm expression changing when she notices him. The teenager – Hikaru, by Eagle's words – also stops laughing, standing up.

Taking a deep breath, Lantis walks towards Eagle's family for this, the last military duty he will ever have.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for yaoi_challenge's Halloween mesh-up: _Magic Knight Rayearth/Full Metal Alchemist: old Europe where people only get powers through the use of alchemy._


End file.
